Aftershock
by Fuchiro-Izanagi
Summary: An original story in the Mass Effect universe, set after the third game. Some spoilers may be involved. Follows an OC, a specialist under Council control. Cameos from canon characters, but the majority of the story will probably involve OCs to not irreparably taint the characters we all love. Mature Content will likely come in later chapters, but this is a story, not pure smut.
1. The Arrival

I remember the Reaper wars. I remember the way the galaxy shook with their presence, trembled at the sound of that awful mechanical roar as they descended through the clouds. They tore apart the fabric of known civilization, and when it was all over, when they were finally destroyed, we were left to pick up the pieces. Almost unanimously, the people of the galaxy decided to refashion the citadel, to make it the seat of power once more, and for a time, there was peace.

It wouldn't last, of course. In our galaxy, peace never lasts. Extremists came forth, cultists that believed that all of the races in the galaxy should have capitulated, should have continued the 'cycle' that the Reapers spoke of. The Council's response was quick, and it was brutal. I was only nineteen at the time, and I remember my first combat. It was far from the declared heroics of the fabled Commander Shepard and her crew. This battle was dirty, it was fast, and it was bloody. The cultists were wiped out, and none of the soldiers that had been sent to clean it up ever truly felt the same.

Three years later, I was pulled into the RAVEN program, with a group of five others. The details of the program are still classified, but it was a special operations force, run by a SpecTRe, a turian called Natlos. Her first name, we never learned, and she never offered it, but her training was strict and to the point. The RAVENs, the few of us that went through her program, were assigned to the council, to be a force directly under the SpecTRe command, to be used when a single SpecTRe was not enough, or when they desired information before an operation.

Two days after my twenty fourth birthday, the Terminus systems erupted in war. Some blamed the Vorcha, others blamed the remaining mercenary groups that had lasted through the Reaper war, but they demanded a seat on the Council, and many of them seemed willing to do anything to get it. The Council sent a plea to Aria T'loak, but the Queen of Omega was stretched thin, already guarding the relay and taking losses as each renewed swell of forces hit. It seemed that the mercenaries were no longer bending to her whim, and with few options left, a RAVEN was sent in.

. . .

What hit me first was the smell. It was the scent of sin, the scent of depravity. Some would have called it a good scent, others would have turned their nose up at it. A few might have gotten sick, and decided to get back on the shuttle and leave. I simply tucked a stray strand of black hair behind my ear and stepped forward, my soft boots meeting the metal of the hangar bay. Glancing around, it was clear that Omega had not been faring well since the beginning of the Terminus War. Scorches on the walls indicated where explosions had rocked the hangar bay, and bullet marks were visible everywhere. Somehow, the bloodstains seemed to have been cleaned away, though I could not recall ever hearing about a janitorial service on the station.

It was my first time on the infamous station that had once been the bastion of the Terminus systems, and was now the one barrier that kept them from slipping through to Council space. No one really knew just how Aria T'loak had decided to support the Council, though there were rumors flying everywhere about various different guesses and stories, none of which truly made sense. After fighting battles on all sides, the pirate 'queen' had put her pride aside long enough to send a short message to the Asari councilor.

I flexed my wrist, the band of my omni-tool hidden under the long sleeves of my jacket, thinking for not the first time that I should have requested a different outfit. While it was certainly acceptable to wear casual attire on Omega, it was just too... clean. All of the other people on the shuttle had born stains or rips in their clothing, and I felt a bit exposed despite the fabric hugging my skin.

A batarian pushed past me, grumbling to himself as he stalked by, joining the queue to pass through the hangar door to get into the station. His bag was slung over one shoulder, and he swiveled his eyes to shoot a glare at me before carrying on. I sighed. Despite the fact that the Humans were part of the council, even that many considered a human to be the greatest hero in the galaxy, there were still places that humans weren't viewed as belonging.

Slowly, the crowd worked its way, carrying me with it, one by one passing through the checkpoint. The two turian guards looked at me as I stopped in front of them, arms crossed over my chest. "Name?" One asked gruffly, his voice sounding distorted through the mic of his helmet.

"Lauren." I replied. There was really no reason not to tell the truth. It wasn't like my special ops status was stamped across my ident. "Lauren Kanto."

"Why are you here, human?"

"I would assume for the same reason as the rest." I replied bitingly, giving him my best glare. "There is a war going on, you realize."

"Sarcasm isn't welcome, human." His tone was harsh, but there seemed to be some laughter in it. "I didn't realize humans were getting caught in the war."

"We have colonies in the Terminus systems." I protested. "Doesn't anyone remember the Collectors anymore?"

He paused, then grunted, waving me past him and into the station. I didn't bother with any further remarks. I had heard more than enough about what the Talons were capable of when it came to defending their home, and that insignia on his armor had been glaring me in the face for the entire short exchange. Since the end of the Reaper war, Aria and the Talons had formed an unspoken arrangement. They defended the lives of Omega. She defended its freedom. Together, they had held off the brute force of the Terminus systems, stopping its advances towards the relay. Still, they were growing thin, their defenses beginning to show signs of cracking. I glanced back once at the guards before they were lost from sight.

I hired an aircab, with a few credits, asking it to bring me to Afterlife. The batarian who was driving shot me a few strange looks, but he didn't ask any questions. I supposed that was just part of living on Omega. The air was different when I stepped back out of the aircar, somehow cleaner, more purified, though the lingering whiff of debauchery remained. Glancing over a railing, it was easy to see just how large the station really was, but also just how strong anyone would have to be to rule it. Even here, outside the infamous Afterlife, signs of battle could be found. I frowned slightly, noticing that most of the civilians were armed. A side-effect of Aria's rule, most likely, but a very good deterrent for crime on the personal level. I shifted my bag slightly on my shoulder, almost wishing that I had my weapon on my hip as well. To take it out now, however, would just attract stares, and attention was the last thing that I wanted.

Unfortunately, that meant waiting in line, and seeing as it extended some forty meters out of the door, it looked like it would be a long wait. Even as I settled in at the back, more civilians were walking towards me, joining the line.

In the end, it took the better part of an hour to make my way in, losing another hundred credits just to get past the elcor bouncer, his monotone greeting following me as I stepped through into the vibrant club. I paused as I came into the main room, orienting myself. Two exits presented themselves to me at once, a third door obviously leading to the restrooms. There at one side sat the bar, and on another...

I bit my lip as I saw the raised seating area above the rest of the club. Aria T'Loak's booth. The pirate queen herself. For a moment, I caught a glimpse of purple skin as she leaned forward to talk to one of her guards, then she fell back into the shadows. It was enough, however. I knew she was there, and she was, after all, the individual I had been sent to meet. I was off grid, however, and had to be cautious in my approach. A back story had been set up for me, along with my travel papers, and I ran through it quickly in my head before I took the path between the crowded club towards that dais, heading towards the ramp to Aria's perch.


	2. Chapter 2: Meet and Greet

I was stopped, as expected, by the guard that stood at the base of the ramp, his eyes studying me. I returned the querying gaze boldly, though I kept it less than professional to keep him wondering at my purpose. Scrapes littered the dull grey of his armor, small ricochets where his shields had failed to stop the bullets from passing through. For a batarian, he was well built, his bulky arms reaching out to take my bag. "This stays here." He said, in the well conditioned tone of the professional bouncer. "If you want to see Aria, go ahead, but she doesn't like time wasters." His hand patted his pistol familiarly, shooting me a significant glance with all four of his eyes.

I started up the ramp, but I was held up once more at the top, two more guards running a scanner over me. It didn't seem to be a weapons check, not that there would have been much point on Omega. Everyone I had seen had a weapon. I felt different because I had been one of the few that hadn't been carrying one openly. Whatever the guards had been looking for, they seemed content, for they stepped back, one of them nodding at me, jerking his chin towards the couches.

There she was, in all her infamous glory. The self-proclaimed ruler of Omega, the pirate queen herself. Aria T'loak, and her attention was focused on me. I swallowed. Somehow, despite the fact that I considered myself an accomplished soldier, something in that steady gaze terrified me inside.

"I assume you have a reason for disturbing me." Her voice was soft, her tone clipped, but there was a thinly veiled threat in the words. I doubted that anyone without a reason would have dared come this far just to be thrown out, and that was just the easiest thing she could do. "You're not here to dance. You're pretty, and you seem flexible enough, but those muscles don't come from dancing."

I was surprised at her perceptiveness, but the manner in which her eyes stared straight through me left little doubt as to how practiced she was at judging others. "Correct." I said, my voice falling into the clipped tone I had always used to answer my superior officers, back before the RAVEN program. "Councilor Tevos sent me, in response to your message."

"Typical." She frowned, and my blood chilled. "I ask for help and they send me one woman. You're not a Spectre, because your identification would have thrown up flags before you even stepped onto my station. You're not C-Sec, and you're not in any military database I have access to." She looked at me sidelong, resting one elbow along the back of the couch. "So just how... can you help [i]me[/i]?" It was rather impressive how many times I felt threatened by the tone of that woman's voice.

Oddly enough, she had managed to hit on the exact question that had been bothering me for the last few days. My orders had been to go to Omega, assess the situation, and report back. So far, not much that I had seen had been promising. "I need to know the situation first." I said quietly, trying to keep my voice steady. I succeeded, barely, sinking down into the adjacent couch in a fake show of confidence.

Her eyes narrowed, and she looked over at me. "The situation?" Venom dripped from her words. "I've lost the lower half of the station. We've managed to lock them out of the systems for now, but their hackers keep finding new loopholes in our security. If that wasn't enough, they've managed to disable the cannons on the lower docking bays, so they get new reinforcements every day. Refugees keep pouring in, and I no longer have any place to put them. The Talons have managed to hold the front line, but they're losing ground and strength. Medical supplies were low when the war started, and we haven't had a shipment. I have wounded and dead, and there's a very thin line between the two without enough meds."

"How much intelligence do you have on the Terminus troop movements in the lower levels?"

She shook her head, and for a moment, the cold mask slipped. They had backed her into a corner, I could tell that now, but I doubted she was the type to stay meekly locked up. "None." She replied. "The cameras and detection systems were the first networks that they cracked into, and we haven't had any information from the lower levels since then."

"Then that should be your first priori-" I checked myself. "My first priority."

There was a wry twist to Aria's lips as I said that, "Really." She said. "And what are your qualifications for taking on an army of troops in unfamiliar ground?"

I shrugged, not giving her a firm answer. "Well, you do have a point." I replied. "It is unfamiliar ground. I don't suppose you'd be willing to lend me a guide."

Her eyes were slits now, narrowed at me coldly. Her voice matched the glare, as cold as ice and sharp as a blade sliding between my ribs. "And just where..." she said slowly, "Are you trying to go?"

"You need intelligence on the troop movements. You need to get rid of the hackers that are breaking through your systems. The goal, in that case, is to get tot the computer systems in the lower levels. Where would they most likely have these computer technicians working?"

That stare rested on me for a few more chilling moments, then with a slow, measured finality, it broke away from my face. "You'll get your guide." She said, her tone informing me that she was through. "Talk to Kravos. He'll get you a room while I... work."

I rose, walking towards the turian that she indicated. Wordlessly, he gestured with the butt of his rifle, leading me away from the domineering leader of Omega, who was already talking to someone on her omni-tool. As we passed by the batarian at the bottom of the ramp, I re-possessed my bag, slinging it back over my shoulder.

"Aria doesn't like mysteries." the turian said. Kravos, I reminded myself. "And she doesn't know what to make of you."

"Not many people do." was my enigmatic response.

Kravos glanced back at me over his shoulder. "Hmf." He frowned. "Not many people get far on Omega like that. Reputation is powerful thing."

"So is mystery." I smiled sweetly at him. "But don't worry. I hear a reputation is an easy thing to make around here."

He stopped at a door, punching a code in. "It is. Be careful you don't make the wrong one." The room the door revealed as it slid open was small, and was certainly nothing that could be called homely, but it was enough for a night's rest, and I had slept in far worse accommodations. "This is your room. Code's-"

"Six-Oh-Four-Six" I grinned at him slyly. "You weren't all that careful about punching it in."

"Hmf" He seemed to like that sound. "See that? You're starting to gain a bit of a reputation already, human. Keep it up, and you may just survive here on Omega." Kravos strode off, shaking his avian head.

Left to my own devices, I entered the small domicile. For a room that was in the back of Afterlife, it was surprisingly quiet. There was no residual noise bleeding through the walls, no vibrations in the floor. There was a bed, too, not a cot. Evidently, I had done something Aria had approved of, though I still wasn't sure just where in her graces I lay. A door on the opposite wall revealed a miniscule restroom, with a shower stall taking up most of the space within. Small, but serviceable. Better than sleeping in the sewage, which had been a distinct possibility in my head.

I placed my bag on the end table next to the bed, sitting down on the mattress. Again, I was pleasantly surprised, this time by the soft, yet supportive quality. Smiling slightly to myself, I opened my bag, beginning to arrange my things. The clothes, I piled neatly in a drawer that slid from under the bed, then turned to my equipment. It was busywork, but it was work that I was familiar with as I checked each individual item, making certain that they were in working order after the trip. Lastly, I turned to my weapons. Three compacted shapes lay there, and I touched each of them in turn. Two pistols, custom engraving around the hand grips. My pride and joy, first purchased for me by my parents as I entered the service. One from my mother, the other from my father. Though they had separated when I was still in school, it was still occasionally humorous how alike they were. Neither of them realized that they had sent me the same gift, but I was happy for them nevertheless. I slid them both onto the end table, within arms reach of the bed.

Last was my rifle, the long, thin barrel extending as I picked it up. It had taken most of my savings to pay for it, but I had never regretted it. After all, it was largely the reason that my name had even been proposed for the RAVEN program, after a detachment went sour. I hoped I wouldn't need it on Omega, but I had just volunteered myself for a rather idiotic mission, mostly due to Aria's terrifying, frigid composure. Still, I was operating within the bounds of my original orders. I had been assigned to reconnoissance, and without those cameras in the lower levels, I had an extremely limited view of the situation. Hopefully, whoever Aria picked to accompany me would be up for the job.

For the moment, however, I had little option but to simply wait. Realizing that my eyes had been drooping for the last hour or so, I flicked off the lights, flopping down on the bed. Long experience and exhaustion barely let me hit the pillow before I was asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

The sound of a buzzer woke me, one hand instinctively reaching towards my weapons on the bedside table, but I checked myself, pausing for a moment to clear my head. There were no gunshots, no explosions, no roaring and screaming outside. Relatively speaking, this was as peaceful a wake up as I was ever likely to get. I allowed my arm to relax slightly before I rose, yawning and stretching. Station time, according to my omni-tool, was in the AM, early, before most people would even be awake, though that honestly depended on how late they had decided to stay up.

The door slid open with a slight whine as I approached, still tucking a stray strand of hair behind my ear. I recognized the face markings of the turian named Kravos, and beside him... I allowed myself a perfunctory glance before instantly turning my eyes back to the turian. It wasn't that the asari was naked, or clad in a dancers outfit, but something in the way that she carried herself was undeniably attractive, one hip cocked to the side with her hand resting on it. She was wearing a suit of light armor, which seemed new, or at least new enough that it hadn't been subjected to any fire. I wasn't the greatest judge of asari age, that much I could admit to myself, but compared to the ageless poise of Aria, this one seemed... more vibrant, energetic, glowing like a sun. A sly smile sat easily upon her lips as she looked at me, her gaze much more daring than mine had been.

"So." She said, and I had to fight back the shiver building at the base of my spine as her voice washed over me. "You're the one that has made Aria so curious." I heard Kravos chuckle behind her, and shot him a glare, one that failed to have an effect.

"Did I really?" I forced a smile onto my face, trying to seem much more nonchalant than I actually felt. Guns, I was good with, explosions, bullets, they wouldn't phase me. Conversation? That was where my grace ran headlong into a wall. "I suppose that you're the guide she sent me?"

The asari nodded. "Maleia." She said, holding out her hand in introduction. I noticed that she hadn't given a family name, but she didn't seem interested in revealing anything more. Her hand waited, outstretched.

Tentatively, I took it. My father always told me that a person's hands could tell you a lot about the individual. I felt calluses there, hardened skin from hands that worked for a living. "You know where we're going?"

"The lower computer core." She nodded. "No access terminals, but if you bring the right equipment, it'll get you access to all kinds of systems."

I frowned thoughtfully. "Aria doesn't expect us to bring Kravos, does she? This will work much better with fewer people. I don't really plan to get into any firefights."

The turian answered himself with a shake of his head. "I'm not stupid enough to walk into a place like that." He grumbled, beginning to walk off.

As he left, I looked back at Maleia. "Do you mind waiting for just a minute? I was asleep when you buzzed at the door."

She shook her head with a shrug, gesturing her approval before I stepped back, letting the door shut behind me. I leaned against it for a moment, chewing on my lip before I straightened up, moving over to the bed to dig out my suit. I stripped quickly, shivering as the cool processed air hit my bare skin, goosebumps racing over my body before I tugged the suit on, zipping it up carefully. I felt the thrum of energy hum through it as the suit shrank slightly, conforming to my skin. The black, tight fabric hugged my form, and I stretched slightly to test it, smiling to myself. I pulled my soft boots on over the suit, then reached up, braiding my hair back out of the way. I clipped my visor over my ears, activating the various overlays to test it before I pushed it up to my forehead. Last were my weapons, the two pistols resting on my lower back, the rifle on my left shoulder.

Maleia looked up as the door slid open again, her eyes once more casually running over me, the corner of her lips curling up. "I have to say, for a human, you clean up quite nicely." She chuckled, as her eyes returned back to my face.

I blushed, fighting the heat out of my cheeks in a valiant effort as I shot her a look of my own. "Well, lead the way." I said, and she grinned at me, obviously recognizing my attempt to change the subject. She said nothing, however, simply nodding and stepping off down the hallway. Before we could even reach the end, however, she had stopped, bending down to pry a panel out of the wall. This revealed a ladder that disappeared down into a black, unlit hole.

"Down we go." She said, pointing down. "There's an aircar waiting at the bottom."

I grimaced, but it was clear that she expected me to go first, so I lowered myself gingerly into the hole, feet finding a rung before I allowed my body to slip in. Slowly and cautiously, I began to make my way down, hand over hand, feeling my way in the darkness. Maleia, in turn, pulled the panel back into place behind us as she slipped into the hole after me, moving with a confidence born of familiarity.

For a time, we climbed in silence, the only sound our hands and feet on the metallic rungs of the ladder. Finally, I couldn't take the overwhelming pressure any more. "How far down is it?" I asked, looking up, though the sheer blackness prevented me from seeing her above me.

"We're almost there." Was her reply. "I think."

With an unseen grimace, I carried on. The bottom, when it came, caught me by surprise, and I almost stumbled, turning on the light from my omni-tool, unsure why I hadn't thought to do so earlier. Maleia dropped lightly to the deck, looking around at the small enclosed space before leaning forward and pulling another wall plate free. I slipped through at her insistence, finding myself in a surprisingly large area, looking around to try and get my bearings. "How do you know about all these passages?" I asked, looking around at the discarded boxes and crates. It seemed like a disused hangar, of sorts, though I couldn't see any vehicles.

"I was born on Omega." She responded, walking forward towards the center of the hangar, slipping between various piles of garbage. "I discovered more than a few when I was small and could fit into all the tight places I shouldn't have been in."

"And how did you end up working for Aria?"

Maleia grunted as she pushed between two storage containers that were close together. "Well, it was this or end up dead eventually, so I chose the option that would give me some longevity."

I frowned, slipping through the crack behind her. "And how old are you, if you don't mind me asking?"

She grinned over at me, pausing to lean against a cloth covered object. "Oh? You don't tell anyone anything about yourself, and now you're asking all these questions? Do you see the hypocrisy here, Lauren?"

"I'm twenty-six." I said, smiling. "Does that make it easier?"

"I'm eighty seven." She said, grinning. "So I'm not old, myself."

To my mind, that was pretty old, but I had to remind myself of the longevity of the Asari. I couldn't even begin to imagine how old Aria was, and asking her was certainly out of the question. Maleia, however, seemed unbothered by this, reaching down to tug the end of the cloth she had been leaning, pulling it off the aircar hidden beneath.

"I hope you're ready for a wild ride." She said, slipping into the driver's seat and activating her seat restraints. "We're not taking an approved route, and I do want to avoid detection, if at all possible."

I shivered slightly, settling in beside her and strapping myself in. "You've done this before, right?"

She just laughed.


	4. Chapter 4: Sounds in the Dark

The acceleration as the aircar shot forward pushed me back into the seat, surprising me with its ferocity. I gripped the edges of the seat tightly, glancing over at Maleia. Shockingly, she seemed completely at ease, her hands relaxed on the controls. I, on the other hand, was white knuckled as she angled the car into a storage area, spinning it to slide between two girders. I must have let out a sound, because she looked at me with a grin.

"You seem a little tense." She said, flipping the car back upright, without even looking forward. I had to admire her calm, but it was still nerve-racking as she spun the car back up, then dove down into what seemed to be an air shaft.

"Umm... how often do you do this?" I squeaked, ducking instinctively as she wove it between the spinning blades of a huge exhaust fan.

"Every once in a while." Maleia shrugged, just as she hauled back on the controls, leveling us out in a gut-wrenching maneuver, sending us spiraling into another air-shaft, though this one was even smaller, the sides of the car barely missing the walls.

I realized suddenly that I was chewing on my lip, and forced my teeth out of the soft flesh, closing my eyes for a moment to regain my composure. At least with the route that the young maiden seemed to be taking, there wouldn't be much chance of being detected. Of course, that didn't feel particularly comforting as she skirted the sides of the passage by scant centimeters, sparks flying as she scraped it once, making the entire aircar vibrate wildly.

"Out of curiosity..." I muttered, my entire stomach sinking into my legs as she flipped it up vertical again, heading straight up. "The inertial dampeners are working on this thing, right?"

"Don't think so." she replied, hanging a sharp turn into another narrow shaft. "My technical expertise is fairly limited, though, so when I found this thing, there was only so much I could do to fix it up."

"Wait." My head snapped around, staring at her in what felt like abject horror. "You're saying that you repaired this thing yourself?" I glanced around, looking for traces of anything that might signify the car falling apart at the seems. Nothing glaring stuck out at me, but I still had lost a lot of faith in the vehicle that we were in.

"Why?" She glanced at me, like an affronted cat, the car decelerating suddenly as it dropped to the floor of the air shaft in front of a spinning fun. "You don't trust me?" She asked, flicking the systems off, the vehicle powering down.

I popped my restraints open, barely able to restrain letting out a sigh of relief. "I just don't like flying." I muttered, taking a deep breath as I stepped out, letting myself stretch in sheer enjoyment of being freed from the confines of the ride. "And you really need to get some inertial dampeners for that thing. It's hellish in there."

She unfolded herself from the padded seat with enviable grace, her lips quirking up into another grin. "Well, I'll tell you what." she said. "I manage to find any of those, and I'll do my best to install them. For now, you're stuck with it." She closed the car, locking it with a few quick button presses before she turned back to me. "But we need to be as quiet as possible from here on out. The route to the computer core from here passes through some open areas."

I grimaced, patting myself to make sure that my weapons were secure, then nodded at her. "Just try to keep us out of sight as much as possible."

Maleia laughed, surprising me. "Oh trust me, Lauren." She patted me on the shoulder as she passed by, heading towards the spinning blades of the fan. "I'm not really in the mood to get a bullet shot through me, either."

"You probably shouldn't have accepted the job, then." I stepped out quickly, following her as she popped open an access panel on the wall, revealing a small console.

"It's not a matter of accepting." Her voice sounded almost bitter, though I couldn't see her face as she turned it away to focus on the console. "Aria made it quite clear that I didn't have much of a choice with this."

"So what's your relationship with her, anyway? You don't seem to refer to her like a lot of the other people on Omega."

Maleia opened her mouth to respond, but any words she might have said were cut off by the loud screech as the braking systems on the fan suddenly kicked in, the large metal blades slowly grinding to a halt. I froze, wincing as the last of the noise died away, but the young asari barely paused, slipping between two of the stopped blades, beckoning for me to follow. She didn't seem too concerned by the volume of the noise, which calmed me somewhat, though it was still slightly disconcerting how loud it had been. "I was born here." She said quietly, reaffirming what she'd already told me. "Stupidly enough, my mother dumped me at Afterlife's back entrance and disappeared."

"So... what? Aria raised you?"

She smiled, slightly, though it wasn't as warm as it had been. "No. One of the dancers found me and brought me home." Her hands had pried another access panel open, and she had begun the process of restarting the fan. "I suppose I wasn't have been the best daughter anyway. Aria pretty much ruled my life from the time I was old enough to walk." She paused. "Why are you so interested, anyway? Wouldn't have expected a Council agent to care about the history of a criminal on Omega."

The question caught me off guard. Why was I so interested, anyway? I didn't know this woman, didn't have any reason to be curious about who she was or where she came from. She was supposed to be my guide, not... whatever I was treating her like. "So Aria told you a little about me."

"What little she knows." She grinned as the fan started back up, much more smoothly than it had stopped. "All [i]that[/i] really includes is that you work for the Council... somehow."

This time, it was my turn to smile ambiguously, and I chuckled as she glanced back at me. "Oh, you're not getting answers that easily. I can tell you two things, though. I'm not a Spectre, and I don't answer to C-Sec."

Maleia shook her head slightly, rolling her eyes as she stepped up onto a maintenance walkway that led down the length of the shaft. "Well, I wasn't aware that there were any other groups that answered to the Council."

"Well, I guess that means that some secrets haven't made it across Aria's desk." I stepped up behind her, glancing back at the blurred blades of the giant fan behind us. "Rather surprising, actually. I would have thought she'd have avenues of information, but I suppose she's not the Shadow Broker."

She laughed, the sweet sound echoing down the long, darkened shaft.

"Something funny about that?"

"I met the Shadow Broker once." She grinned over her shoulder at me. "Trust me. Not what you expect."

"Wait, you met the Shadow Broker?" I blinked, pausing. "I thought no one ever met the Shadow Broker. The Council's been trying to figure out who he is for ages."

"Well, apparently, some information [i]does[/i] come across Aria's desk." She turned around, leaning against the guard rail of the walkway. "As well as some quite interesting personalities. I met Shepard once, too."

"[i]The[/i] Shepard? As in, savior of the galaxy Shepard?"

"Well, when I say that I 'met' her, I mean that she passed by me in Afterlife, but It's closer than a lot of people have been."

I frowned, stepping forward as she began to move back down along the walkway. "Even if Aria [i]was[/i] the Shadow Broker, I answer to six people in the galaxy. Not one of them wants that information to get out."

"Well, that tells me a few things." She smiled. "One, the Council aren't the only people in charge of you. There's only five councilors."

"Five councilors, one Spectre. Now stop asking questions."

Maleia chuckled, stopping at an access port and popping open the console. "Well, Spectres have been corrupted before. Do I need to remind you about Saren?"

"Saren was indoctrinated by a Reaper."

"Yet you can't forget about the time that Spectre was bought by the Shadow Broker."

I glanced at her as the access port slid open, and she ducked through it, allowing me to follow. "That's not public knowledge either. Another perk of working under Aria?"

"That one wasn't a very well kept secret." she smiled, closing the access port behind us. "But I think it's better we stop talking now. This is not part of the station anyone travels through anymore."

I looked around. Obviously one of the maintenance areas, pipework ran everywhere through the various walkways and catwalks in the giant room. No lights could be seen anywhere, and when I raised my arm to activate the light on my omni-tool, Maleia grabbed my wrist, shaking her head. "We don't want to draw any attention down here." She muttered, glancing around.

"Terminus troops?"

She shook her head. "Have you heard of Adjutants?"

I nodded, chewing on my lip. "I thought that they'd been wiped out on Omega..."

"Not all of them... There are still some parts of the station. These parts... that the Talons or Aria's forces never got to before the Terminus wars started. Every now and then, you still hear about one turning up in a populated area." She was on edge for the first time since I'd met her, a note of fear in her voice. "If it's all the same to you, Lauren, I'd rather not run into one."

I wholeheartedly agreed, keeping low and quiet as I crept along the walkways behind her, head constantly on a swivel, looking out for anything. My senses were screaming at me, head aching with the constant stress of trying to listen and see everything at once. For her part, Maleia was almost catlike in her stealth, her eyes narrowed in focus as she led me on a winding pathway through the support structure of the station. I stuck as closely behind her as possible, though my progress didn't have the easy stealth of experience, my eyes constantly flicking down to check for any lips or ledges that I might stumble on.

It was during one of these checks that I ran into her outstretched hand, the palm landing between my breasts as she reached back to stop me. I winced slightly, but made no sound, simply looking up at her. She had crouched low, eyes darting around, her entire body frozen. Instinctively, I moved to match her pose. She turned towards me, and it was then that I saw the fear in her eyes. At that moment, I heard what had made her stop. A scraping, dragging sound, moving along the catwalk above us. Her eyes glanced up for a moment before they met mine again. I nodded, my muscles tensing in my legs as I gave her the signal to wait, showing her a clenched fist.

[i]'Are you crazy?'[/i] she mouthed at me, shaking her head vehemently, but it was too late. I had already swung myself over the rail of the walkway onto some pipes, and was beginning to climb up them. In desperation, she threw her hands up in the air silently, but I once more gave her the signal to hold, puling myself up onto one of the pipe's flanges. The soft fabric of my boots and suit meant that I didn't have to worry about making any noise as I slowly climbed up, pausing every now and then to make sure that Maleia hadn't shifted. Fortunately, she seemed petrified enough that she hadn't moved since the second signal, and as I came level with the higher catwalk, I flipped my visor down over my eyes. Instantly, the night-vision filter came on, and the room was illuminated to me as if it were day.

Maleia had been right. There were still adjutants on Omega. This became blatantly obvious as I studied the one on the catwalk before me. It shuffled slowly along, holding it's swollen weaponized arm down at its side. The light blue sacks on its back glowed slightly in the dark, and I wondered why I hadn't seen them earlier. Blood was splattered across its upper torso, and it seemed fresh, for I could see it still dripping down onto the walkway below. I sighed silently to myself, knowing that I was about to do something completely idiotic, but there were few other options. Stealth would only last so long, and all the reports I'd read led me to believe that when a firefight broke out, any Adjutants nearby wouldn't be far behind. I tagged the monster in my visor, a shimmering red outline forming around it.

[i]Probably should have sent a preliminary report in yesterday[/i] a voice said sarcastically in the back of my head. Ah, my conscience. Always showing up at the worst times. I shoved the voice back down into my mind, but as always, it rose back up again. [i]And what about Maleia? You go and get yourself killed, she's all alone down here.[/i] But she could handle herself. She had grown up on Omega, after all. [i]Sure, but she doesn't seem to have any weapons. What is she going to do if there's another one of these things?[/i]

"Oh, fuck it all..." I groaned to myself, and jumped. The capacitors in my suit legs added impetus, sending me flying up over the walkway, hands slipping behind my back to pull both pistols out. As I flipped over, now facing the Adjutant, my pistols came up to bear, pointing right at those sensitive sacks on its back. I squeezed the triggers.


	5. Chapter 5: The Core Problem

I felt the kick of the guns in my hands, but the suppressors muffled the sound as they bucked upwards. The first shot hit the Adjutants barriers, a flare of purple showing as they deflected it. The second managed to hit, and the sacks ruptured with a sickening squelch. The pistols came up to bear, and I squeezed the triggers again, hoping, praying in my heart. I was falling now, passing beyond the level of the upper catwalk, so I wouldn't have time for a third shot. I slid the pistols home on my back, gaining my bearings in midair as I fell, the air rushing by. The lower catwalk came up to meet me, and I landed in a roll, dispersing the momentum of my fall.

I froze then, listening, my entire body stiff as I waited. There was no howl, no scream of rage that I had feared, just a soft, wet noise of a body crumpling to the deck above. For the first time since I had leapt, I allowed myself to take a deep breath, working the tension back out of my body. I nearly jumped out of my skin, however, when a hand touched my shoulder.

"What the fuck was that?" Maleia hissed, the anger in her eyes obvious through the filter of my visor. "Next time, you think you might explain yourself before you decide to climb up a pipe, kill and adjutant, and fall a dozen meters?"

I flinched, falling back a step as she advanced. "I didn't want to make any unnecessary noise." I muttered. "Those things have really good hearing, right?"

"Yes, they do, which is why I was petrified the moment you started climbing. What if you'd fallen? Or slipped? Or just made a noise? I told you that I didn't want to die down here."

"You're only a couple of minutes from the exit." I was surprised at the defensive tone in my voice. "You could have gotten out."

"And when Aria asked me what happened to the Council spook? What then?"

"Well, I'd imagine you'd tell her the truth..."

"That you're a reckless bitch who doesn't work well with others?"

Something snapped inside of me. She must have sensed it, too, for she suddenly took a step back, her eyes widening. I took a deep breath, quieting the boiling rage that was building in my gut. My body rebelled against me, straining to reach out and hit her, but somehow, I kept it in check, all the muscles I had tensing. "Maybe." I said quietly, aware that the cold chill of my anger was still quite apparent in the single word. "You're right. I'm not that good at working with others. Never have been. But I'm damn good at working with myself. If you don't like that, then I can still offer you a way out. You know where the aircar is."

She studied me, her eyes dark and intense, flicking across my face. I couldn't read her expression, but eventually, she nodded, a firm set returning to her features. "Fair enough." She said, that now familiar wry grin settling onto her lips. "I'm not so bad at working alone either, and I'm a shitty teammate."

She hadn't answered my question, and I paused, watching her silently. There really was no logical way that I could finish this without her. I was lost there, and she was my only way of finding the path to the computer core. Without her, I would be stuck wandering the lower levels of the station, and who knew what other dangerous things were wandering the darker parts of Omega. That wasn't even beginning to consider the Terminus troops massing everywhere.

Finally, she shook her head, rubbing her forehead with her palm. "Fine." she said. "I'm an idiot, but I'll stay with you. For now."

I let out a sigh of relief that I didn't even know I had been holding in, visibly relaxing. "Well, we're both idiots then. This was my idea in the first place, remember?"

"Hey, you just killed an adjutant without even making a sound." She shrugged. "I figure that's a useful set of skills to have right about now, seeing as they're not working against me."

"Well, you have to have some skill yourself, to survive on Omega."

Maleia chuckled, starting to warm towards me again. "I guess survival is pretty much the only skill I have."

"I don't see a gun anywhere on you..."

"I don't like guns." the statement was blunt, and her gaze grew serious for a moment.

"Well, that sets you apart from most of this station, then." I shifted slightly, uncomfortable with those brilliant eyes staring into mine. "I've heard some people say that thermal clips are the primary commodity on Omega."

"Maybe." she frowned, the expression oddly disturbing on her face. I repressed a sudden urge to hug her. "But we should keep moving. Adjutants are drawn to blood, and I can smell that thing from here."

Suddenly aware of the putrid, almost chemical smell of the dead creature above us, I nodded, extending a hand to offer her the lead. She took it, moving forward with a purposeful stride, obviously eager to leave the maintenance catwalks behind. In complete agreement with this goal, I followed quickly after her, ducking under a few low-slung pipes. "How close are we?"

"Not far." She stepped over a dried stain on the floor. I tried not to think too hard about what had caused it. "Just a bit more time on these walkways, then there's an air duct that runs directly over the computer core. I'm honestly surprised that we haven't run into any troops down here, yet."

"Maybe they're as nervous about the Adjutants as we are... most of these access ports that we've passed seem sealed shut from the other side."

"Hmm." She vaulted the rail into a large pipe, heading towards the wall of the area. "Maybe they're more informed than Aria thinks. She tried to make sure that word of the Adjutants never made it off the station."

"Well, we're going to find out as soon as we get into that computer system." I grimaced, following her over a latticework of various pipes into we came up to a grating. This, she removed, unhooking it from its mounts. I glanced in. It was barely large enough to fit either of us, but with a squeeze, I supposed that we could make it through.

"Well, that's supposing we make it that far." she winked at me, climbing up into the pipe. Her voice echoed strangely as she started moving forward, working herself along on her elbows. "But I'd better not catch you staring at my ass."

I failed to suppress the shiver that passed through me, realizing that my teeth had settled down into my lower lip again. "We'll make it." I muttered, pulling myself up and in after her. "Just stop waving that ass in my direction, and I won't [i]have[/i] to stare at it."

Maleia laughed, albeit quietly, moving along with an impressive speed despite the close confines of the air duct. "Well well." She muttered, only the insulated metal surrounding us allowing me to hear the quiet sounds of her voice. "Who would have pictured a Council spook being such a flirt."

I blushed, thankful that the lack of light would hide the sudden heat in my cheeks. "Just because I work for the Council doesn't mean that I'm not a person, you know." As much as I struggled, I couldn't help but let a trace of my pout work its way into the tone of my voice. What was it about this damned asari that completely took away my bearing? I was supposed to be a professional. Aria, I could understand. She would haven been able to intimidate a rock into moving. But my actions recently hadn't been driven by fear. There was nothing unduly terrifying about Maleia. Nothing scary at all. But there was something about her.

No, that wasn't right. There were many things about her. The way she moved, that easy, casual grace, almost feline in its poise. The way she held herself, with a casual veneer of calm. That way she talked, the low, warm lilt of her voice, as it wormed its way into my head. How was it that she was able to so easily sway my emotions like this? What made her so damn good at it? That question only opened the floodgates to hundreds of others like it, filling my head until I wanted to scream with the pressure.

"Hey." I looked up, startled out of the thoughts in my head. Maleia was looking back at me, her face illuminated through a grate above. "You okay?"

"Yes."

"You sure? Because it looks like there's a hell of a lot of things on your mind."

There were, but not really things I felt comfortable telling her. Aware that if I brushed the question aside, she'd only get more curious, I shrugged. "It just seems like a lot of trouble to go through. Why wouldn't the terminus forces just destroy the station? Wouldn't it be easier to bombard it, rather than taking it over?"

"You have to remember that Omega is a valuable strategic hardpoint in the galactic scale. It has almost sole control of the primary relay into the Terminus systems, and has the ability, if held, to sway the balance of this war."

"Well, Aria certainly hasn't been very communicative about a need for help." I muttered. "If the Council knew the situation on Omega, they might be a bit more generous with their support."

"Rather than sending one ambiguous agent?" the young asari chuckled. "You may be good at climbing pipes, but that won't help you against an army."

I winced as my head hit a bend in the air duct, making me curse silently as I wriggled around it to continue following her. "Well, you're good at crawling through ducts, so I figure between the two of us, we can pretty much do anything."

This time, I didn't notice her stop, and my head bumped into the hard surface of her armor. "We're here." She whispered, pointing to a grate in the side of the duct. I struggled, squeezing up beside her to take a look through the thin mesh lattice.

"Shit." I muttered. "You could have mentioned that the computer core was that big. There could be at least twenty technicians working on that thing separately."

"Well, you signed up for this." Her knuckles prodded me in the side. "I got you here, so it's your turn to go to work."

"Oh sure, because killing an Adjutant single-handed wasn't enough."

"I know, I know. You're no Shepard, but it's only about thirty armed individuals down there. Tell you what. I'll stay here out of sight, and you can go do your jumping, flipping, shooting... whatever."

I glared at her, having to twist uncomfortably in the confines of the duct to do so. "Oh, you're a great help."

She grinned at me, a dark humor in her eyes. "Well, there's no going back now."

There was, but I didn't argue the point, gently hooking my fingers into the mesh of the grate and carefully lifting it from its mounts. Slowly, it slid free, and I lowered it to the floor below silently. "Just stay here." I muttered as I slid out headfirst, hooking the lip with my fingers and flipping over to land on my feet below.

"Right." Her whisper carried after me. "Because I'm about to run towards all of those guns."


End file.
